Bryan D. Jackson is an Eastern Cherokee successor. He was ordained in the American Baptist Churches USA, and is a registered descendant in the First Families of the Cherokee Nation (Sonicooie) and the First Families of the Twin Territories (Indian Territory). His shares community with the Mt. Hood Cherokees in the Pacific Northwest. He is also a multi-chapter member of the Trail of Tears Association and the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers. He is a graduate of Pfeiffer College (now Pfeiffer University) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. His postgraduate work includes two years' advanced Clinical Pastoral Education in two different Level 1 Trauma Centers, and Bowen family systems theory at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family (Georgetown Family Center) in Washington, DC.  




Documented Cherokee Lineage


"Susannah" Sonicooie (Cordery)   Reservation Roll, 1817  Eastern Cherokee

Sarah Cordery (Rogers) [m. John Rogers, Jr., Reservation Roll 1817, Henderson Roll, 1835]  Eastern Cherokees

Ann Chappell Rogers (Lenoir)  Siler Roll, 1851; Chapman Roll, 1852; Hester Roll, 1883; Dawes Roll, 1900  Eastern Cherokee, migrated to Indian Territory (later Oklahoma)

Emma Elizabeth Lenoir (Roberts)  Hester Roll, 1883  Eastern Cherokee

Estelle Corinne Roberts (Wiggins)  Guion Miller Roll, 1909  Eastern Cherokee

Aileen Wiggins (Jackson) (Farrell)  Cherokee descendant, Swain County, N.C.

Walter Coburn Jackson  Cherokee descendant, Swain County, N.C.
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Bryan Douglas Jackson, First Families of the Cherokee Nation, 2011  Mt. Hood Cherokee



This page is dedicated in loving memory of my friend, Don L. Shadburn  (1939-2015)

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My great, great, great aunt, Mary Rogers McNair, traveled the Cherokee Trail of Tears with her family in the Bell Detachment. My grandmother first told me about Mary when I was a teen. I later verified the story through research. The Trail of Tears is one of the most tragic events in Cherokee and United States history. You can read about it here.